Lawksawk fire, 1 March 2026 Lawksawk, Mongkaing
The fire started on 1 March 2026 in Lawksawk, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 31 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,068 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 27th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 22 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2026, of 418.
- Burnt area
- 17,068ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 31days
- 1 Mar 2026 – 31 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 1 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 667
- in a single hotspot: 101 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.7GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 43 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 1 Apr.
This area had burned before
84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,057 ha in 2016, 3,704 ha in 2017, 479 ha in 2018, 4,530 ha in 2019, 3,231 ha in 2020, 3,086 ha in 2021, 6,354 ha in 2022, 3,594 ha in 2024, 9,584 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 14,259 ha that had burned before.
- 5,997 ha Lawksawk fire, February 2025 38,375 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,294 ha Lawksawk fire, March 2021 3,025 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,052 ha Mongkaing fire, March 2025 2,257 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,949 ha Lawksawk fire, March 2022 2,992 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,895 ha Lawksawk fire, March 2024 2,621 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,452 ha Lawksawk fire, March 2022 6,072 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,074 ha Lawksawk fire, March 2020 2,965 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 768 ha Lawksawk fire, March 2017 4,159 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Lawksawk where it started16,435 ha reached on 23 Feb3.2 %
-
710 ha reached on 6 Mar0.2 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
The weather day by day
ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Mar | 31.5 °C | 30 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 2 Mar | 31.6 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 3 Mar | 31.7 °C | 31 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 4 Mar | 30.8 °C | 35 % | 26 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 29 |
| 5 Mar | 33.0 °C | 35 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 6 Mar | 33.9 °C | 32 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 7 Mar | 33.4 °C | 37 % | 31 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 30 |
| 8 Mar | 35.2 °C | 26 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 9 Mar | 36.6 °C | 25 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 10 Mar | 34.8 °C | 26 % | 32 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 34 |
| 11 Mar | 32.1 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 2.5 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 12 Mar | 32.3 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 13 Mar | 30.3 °C | 40 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 14 Mar | 32.5 °C | 33 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 15 Mar | 32.6 °C | 35 % | 32 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 26 |
| 16 Mar | 31.6 °C | 32 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 17 Mar | 31.4 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 18 Mar | 34.3 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 19 Mar | 34.5 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 20 Mar | 32.9 °C | 30 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 21 Mar | 30.8 °C | 38 % | 33 km/h | 8.5 mm | Very low 5 |
| 22 Mar | 30.7 °C | 39 % | 37 km/h | 9.7 mm | Very low 4 |
| 23 Mar | 32.3 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 24 Mar | 32.5 °C | 33 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 25 Mar | 34.3 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 26 Mar | 34.4 °C | 30 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 27 Mar | 34.2 °C | 32 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 28 Mar | 34.7 °C | 33 % | 38 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 25 |
| 29 Mar | 32.8 °C | 34 % | 41 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 27 |
| 30 Mar | 34.2 °C | 34 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 31 Mar | 34.7 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 1 Apr after | 33.9 °C | 38 % | 34 km/h | 2.4 mm | Low 11 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 4 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 136 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 81: 5.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 667Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 38,375 haLawksawk26 February 2025 · 23 days · 4 km away
- 7,170 haMongkaing14 March 2026 · 14 days · 21 km away
- 6,966 haLawksawk15 March 2026 · 16 days · 23 km away
- 24,421 haLawksawk27 February 2026 · 14 days · 33 km away
- 36,894 haLawksawk26 February 2024 · 21 days · 36 km away
- 9,954 haYwangan8 March 2025 · 14 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lawksawk fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 March 2026 and 31 March 2026: 31 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 17,068 hectares (170.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lawksawk (16,435 ha, 3.2 %); Mongkaing (710 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Myanmar (Burma) (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
Where to verify it
A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.
Satellite cross-check
Does something look wrong on this page?
This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.
Report an error
Where this data comes from
The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.